Scientists may have found the cause of the world’s sudden dwindling population of bees – and cell phones are to blame. Research conducted in Lausanne, Switzerland has shown that the signal from cell phones not only confuses bees, but also leads to their death.

Over 83 experiments have yielded the same results.

With virtually most of the population of the United States (and the rest of the world) owning cell phones, the impact has been greatly noticeable.

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PenTrik

Remember that cellphone waves fall by a power of two. So that at ten feet away, the effect on cell phones on bees have dropped by basically two decimal points. Its only if you are within close proximity do you start killing bees.

That being said, they figured out what was killing the bees anyway. http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2010/10/07/the-riddle-of-the-bee-deaths-solved-at-last/

http://almostbohemian.com/ David | Almost Bohemian

This is incredibly sad. My gf was stung yesterday on the foot and it got us thinking about the importance of these little guys… Gosh humans are a tough breed..

http://www.onelovemeg.com Meg @ OneLoveMeg

I am so sad that bee’s are on the brink of extinction. Although I was stung on Saturday and it hurt like hell, I still would never want to see these critters gone (and their yummy honey).

Also note that the phones were placed underneath the hives. You are rather unlikely to be using your cellphone near the hive. It should also be noted that farms are rather unlikely to have cell phone near them so the interference with individual bees should be quite minimal.

http://insomniaclabrat.blogspot.com/ Insomniac Lab Rat

This is basically what I was going to say…

I’m not saying that cell phones are perfectly harmless devices that we should use without a second thought as to the potential effects, but there’s a big difference between putting a cell phone in a bee hive, and people using cell phones miles away from the bee hives. I can’t recall the source right now, but top scientists have pointed out that the number of bee deaths in different countries with similar cell phone usage varies. Of course, it’s hard to say how close all the cell phone usage is to the bee hives, but it is something to think about. And then there’s the other potential causes, as linked above.

Again, I’m not saying that cell phones are harmless, but the media tends to blow scientific discoveries out of proportion, and we should take these type of reports with a grain of salt. It is very sad that so many bees, which are important, are dying, and it would be nice to stop it. On the plus side, bees have become sort of a hot topic in science lately, with their genome being sequenced and all sorts of studies on worker bees and queen bees, and maybe with a renewed interest, someone will find new ways to keep bees alive and healthy.

Adam

The Inhabitant’s article is overly hypebolic with Fox News style headlines. If you read the original study they are putting the phones inside the beehive. Certainly it could contribute to the problem, but it’s not the smoking gun some claim.

Karma

I can’t say I’m surprised that cell phones are potentially linked to colonly collapse. I’ve heard before about how bee hives are very electromagnetically charged places both because of the bees themselves and because of the honeycomb structure. Bees ability to home and communicate through the hive mind is tied to electromagnetic frequencies, and it is only logical that any disruption of local frequencies is going to have some effect on them. While the cell phones may not directly kill the bees, a disbanded hive is not going to survive very well.